


Strawberry Preserves

by frostios



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, M/M, gay farmers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28931625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frostios/pseuds/frostios
Summary: Barnaby brings Freedon to stay with him on his run down farm.
Relationships: Freedon Gordman/Barnaby Calzone, Gordzone
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25
Collections: Reincarnation





	Strawberry Preserves

**Author's Note:**

> A little filler excerpt for a period of downtime some d&d ocs had in a campaign I'm in with a few friends! These characters are almost literally fantasy Gordon Freeman and Barney Calhoun. Barnaby (halfling) is Emmy's (@loneliestcactus on tumblr) and Freedon (half elf) is mine. They are very much in love but aren't officially together yet because Freedon is bad with emotions and needs things like "hey we're partners now" explicitly stated for him to really believe that they're together. It's a fun time for everyone else in the party.
> 
> Also I do not write at all and barely glanced over this after I finished it so if you see a mistake you simply do not.

Freedon wasn't raised to be the outdoorsy type. When he was younger, he usually chose to have his nose buried in a book than follow the kids of the neighborhood around the block. And then he was constantly invested in school and studying and then-

He was thrown into combat and forced to somehow fit himself in amongst the outdoors. He was a bumbling fool at first, constantly getting slapped in the face by low hanging branches or falling on his ass directly into a puddle of mud. Freedon had quickly grown impatient with himself and his inability to adapt. And then-

A helping hand was extended. The man's name was Barnaby Calzone (Freedon tried to keep his expression neutral once learning the name but was unable to stop from quirking an eyebrow. Barnaby just laughed). Barnaby had apparently noticed how...inexperienced... Freedon was (his exact words were "you look like a newborn fawn with the way your feet stumble over anything in your path") and offered to give him a few tips on traversing through the wilderness.

It was easy to stick by Barnaby's side even after he'd shown Freedon everything he'd need to know. He still often tripped over a root or two (general clumsiness can’t be solved overnight), but he found himself less frustrated when there was a hand in his helping him off the ground. The encouraging smile Barnaby gave him after each tumble soothed his irritation and he would find himself smiling in return.

The years alone without him by his side were made more evident every time his body slammed onto the ground from tripping over another damned loose stone. There were no hands to lift him up, no smile waiting for him, no nothing when Freedon finally forced himself up with his own shaking arms.

So Freedon never became completely adapted to the great outdoors, even years later when he eventually found his way back to Barnaby. But while he was with the shorter man, he felt better about the whole thing. Which is why he agreed to the offer of coming to live with the man on his farm during their six month leave. 

Now freshly teleported out of the Tower, Freedon and Barnaby stood at the edge of the shorter man's property. And Freedon's general feelings towards the outdoors reared its head once more.

The place was... a bit of a wreck. Clumps of dead crops and weeds lined the untilled gardens. Multiple places along the fence line were slowly falling apart. A large barn sat closer to the house and Freedon could see from here that there were multiple spots in the roof and walls that would need patching up. A rat scurried past their feet, pausing once to turn back and hiss at the two before taking off again.

Barnaby let out a low whistle, running a hand through the mop of hair on his head. " Well, this place has sure seen better days. I didn' expect much though, I pretty much rushed outta here as soon as I got that first teleportation sigil. Ah well." He gave Freedon a firm pat on his lower back (the tallest point he could really reach on him) "Looks like when I said I needed you, I really did mean it, huh?"

Barnaby gave a breathy laugh at his own joke as he began to move along towards the house, leaving a blushing Freedon behind. Freedon mentally kicked himself at getting flustered over something that Barnaby only meant as a way to get him to come help on his crumbling farm. He tries not to let his disappointment bog him down too much as he drags his feet through the yellow grass to follow the man. He's just happy that Barnaby wanted to stick together in the end.

Entering the house, Freedon was surprised that it wasn't as completely run down as the rest of the farm. A thick layer of dust covered every surface and each corner had an impressive collection of spiderwebs. Freedon followed the footprint tracks in the dust and ducked under a doorway to find Barnaby rustling around in a closet.

Barnaby let out an AHA as he shuffled backwards and held up a mop, a bucket, and a collection of rags. "Lets clean up the house for a bit and then we can really settle in. Do you think you could start takin' out those cobwebs on the ceilin' while I go grab some soap for the mop?" 

That's how Freedon found himself working alongside Barnaby for the rest of the day wiping down and mopping every inch of the house. At one point Barnaby split off to wash some bedding and blankets while Freedon easily reached to wipe off the tops of the kitchen cabinets. Around sunset, Barnaby searched through the freshly cleaned out pantry and procured a jar of what seemed like strawberries. 

"I packed these myself last spring." Barnaby muttered out as he focussed on unscrewing the lid. He sniffed at the preserves for a moment before shrugging. "Don't smell rotten, should be fine."

Freedon didn't know how to feel about that but Barnaby was already shoving a spoon into the fruit to bring it to his mouth. Freedon watch him chew thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging again.

"'S not bad! Bone apple teeth!" Barnaby gave a fruity grin (literally, there was a bit of strawberry on the corner of his mouth. Freedon chose not to comment) and offered the jar to Freedon who rolled his eyes as he accepted it. 

The two eventually moved to the front room to sit together on the couch. They hadn't bothered to light any candles yet, instead letting the late evening rays fill the room, growing dimmer with each passing minute.

Barnaby was thinking out loud about the rest of the week, scraping their one spoon against the bottom of the jar in hopes of catching the last few chunks of fruit. "Tomorrow we should run to the market first thing, I dunno if I can survive off just strawberries for more than a night. We can pick up some seeds and feed while we're there, you can pick out whatever you'd like to grow too, it'll be fun. And then when we get back we should set out and see where the chickens I released ran off to, see if we can't wrangle a few back into the coop-"

"You released your chickens?" Freedon interrupted, giving Barnaby a look. The man somehow has gotten even more strawberry smeared along his cheek and it didn't seem like he noticed.

“Well yeah, it’d have been cruel to leave em in their coop to starve!” 

“But. Aren’t they domesticated? Doesn’t releasing them into the wild mean that they’d be easy prey for other animals?” Freedon signed quizzically. 

Barnaby sat there for a moment, turning over the thought in his mind as he sucked on the spoon. Freedon snorted as a look of horror dawned across his face.

“My God, I basically threw them to the fuckin’ WOLVES, Freedon! Shit what if it’s not too late, we gotta go out NOW and-”

Freedon tugged Barnaby back from his escape from the couch, wheezing with laughter. Barnaby looked so torn up about the thought of a gaggle of creatures immediately snatching up his poor chickens, Freedon was only able to give him a pat on the back for the moment while he got his laughter under control. 

“There’s not much we can do now, it’s already dark out and I don’t feel like freezing my ass off on a wild goose hunt.” 

“They were chickens…”

Freedon whacked Barnaby on the arm, snorting at the man’s exaggerated pout. “Lets look around for them tomorrow and if we don’t find anything you can just start over.”

“We can start over. They’ll be your chickens now too,” Barnaby pointed out, smiling widely. Freedon felt his ears burn as he shifted awkwardly, but he didn’t look away. Barnaby carried on like nothing happened.

“After that, we should try to patch up the barn. It may surprise you but I didn’t set all the animals free. I have a cow and a pair of horses boarded at a neighbor’s farm a little north of here. It’d probably be best to get them as soon as we can. It’s been a bit since you’ve been on a horse, huh? Or, well, maybe you did ride while you were off doin’- uh-” Barnaby stuttered off in surprise at the feeling of a wet thumb brushing against his cheek. 

He sat there silent for the duration of the time it took Freedon to finally scrub off the strawberry. He stared as the other man drew back and popped his thumb in his mouth to lick off the stickiness. Freedon wiped his hand on his shirt and his gaze focused back to Barnaby’s instead of staring at his cheek, startled to find the other man gaping at him like a fish out of water.

“Oh. You just had. Strawberry gunk on your face. Sorry.” Freedon drew away awkwardly. 

Barnaby let out a breath that turned into a laugh halfway out. “It’s all good, just startled me is all. Thank you, I probably would’ve passed out with it on my face and then gotten it all over the clean bedding.” 

Freedon perked back up at the reassurance. “Speaking of. Where should I sleep? I didn’t see more than your bed in the house, I think I’ll be fine on the couch until I can purchase my own bed.”

Barnaby blinked at him, processing his words. “Wha- Well, no you don’t need to sleep down here. I think my bed should be fine, but- well, hm. I don’t think it’s much bigger than the ones in the dorms really. We can make it work for now and look into gettin’ a bigger bed for us in the future. But yeah, you can sleep with me, unless you’d, uh, rather have the couch?”

It was Freedon’s turn to blink back at the shorter man. It was true that they’ve shared beds in the past, but that was usually when something bad or stressful had happened that day. But now Barnaby wanted to just share permanently? A small smile worked its way onto Freedon’s face.

“No, the bed would be great I think.”

A loud snore right in his ear jerked Freedon awake. He let out a groan and buried his face deeper into the warmth surrounding him to try to stay under the blanket of sleep but it was fruitless. He huffed in slight annoyance and allowed himself to open his eyes. It seemed to be just before dawn if the slight blue tinge of the room had anything to say. 

Freedon tried to sit up but found himself trapped by a pair of strong arms circling his shoulders and he remembered that he was in bed with Barnaby. They had fallen asleep facing away from each other the night before but it seems that they gravitate towards one another even in sleep. Freedon smiled softly and settled back down against Barnaby’s chest. 

Freedon’s life had been full of hardships that doubled after he parted from the ones he called family. He doesn’t know if he can ever figure out the words to express how thankful he is that he eventually found his way back to the one who matters most to him, but for now the sound of Barnaby’s snores and the beating of his heart against Freedon’s ear while the room grew ever brighter was all he could ask for in this moment.


End file.
